Slip sliding away, slip sliding away…..

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In the “Global Competitiveness Report 2006-2007” released today by the World Economic Forum, whose Canadian partner is the Institute for Competitiveness & Prosperity, Canada moved down in the rankings over 2005’s results in both of its competitiveness indices. On the “Business Competitiveness Index,” Canada moved down to 15th from 14th. On the “Global Competitiveness Index,” Canada also fell – to 16th from 13th.

Roger Martin, Chairman of the Institute for Competitiveness & Prosperity and Dean of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management views the one-year drop in rankings as part of a longer term trend which indicates that Canada is not fulfilling its full economic potential.

The esteemed Dr. Martin – of Rotman and all that rot.

Here’s a tip. The OECD said in 2002 that the lack of coherent regional development in Canada was a threat to the country’s long term prosperity.

Ooops. I am sure that the Toronto-centric Martin meant Ontario when he said ‘Canada is not fulfilling its economic potential’. It must have been a slip of the tongue.

Because I don’t remember the last study coming out of Martin’s institute that gave a crap about the chronic underperformance of Atlantic Canada or any other place in Canada that has not performed well.

In fact, that Institute has called Equalization a drag on the Ontario economy.

Canada will not ‘fulfil its full economic potential’ when huge segments of the country are in population and economic decline. No matter how much Equalization is spread around